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This site, although called candoia.ca, is mainly dedicated to Solomon Island Ground Boas (Candoia c paulsoni). There are many other Candoia subspecies such as Viper Boas and Tree Boas - but there is only so much room in our house for Candoia, and although care for each candoia ssp is different (Viper Boas, for example, require much more humidity - tree boas, obviously, require much more height and climbing branches), we are limiting ourselves to Solomon Island Ground Boas, Candoia c paulsoni.
Genus
Candoia Gray, 1842 -- Bevel-nosed Boas, Keel-scaled Boas Direct Children:
Species Candoia aspera (Günther, 1877) -- Viper Boa
Species Candoia bibroni (Duméril and Bibron, 1844) -- Bibron's Bevel-nosed/Keel-scaled Boa, Pacific Tree Boa
Subspecies Candoia bibroni australis (Montrousier, 1860) -- Solomon Island Tree Boa
Subspecies Candoia bibroni bibroni (Duméril and Bibron, 1844) -- Fiji boas
Species Candoia carinata (Schneider, 1801) -- Pacific Ground Boa, Pacific Keel-scaled Boa
Subspecies Candoia carinata carinata (Schneider, 1801) -- Western Schneider's Bevelnosed Boa, Solomon Island Boa
Subspecies Candoia carinata paulsoni (Stull, 1956) -- Solomon Island Ground Boa
Species Candoia superciliosa (Günther, 1863) -- Palau Bevel-nosed Boa
What's it like in the Solomon Islands today?
More on Candoia.ca
Why do we love Solomon Island Ground Boas so much? Well, it didn't start out that way. We saw our first Candoia for sale at a local petstore. I thought her red colour was pretty, but I classified Candoia carinata paulsoni in the same category as Ball Pythons: fine, but boring and plain. My husband, however, was taken with her, and since I was the one who brought the reptile hobby into the household (and was pushing to get more), I was more than encouraging for him to get his own snake. As I've felt strongly about buying captive born and bred (CBB) animals from breeders whenever possible, we decided to do some research, first. However, we discovered quite quickly that Candoia in general were hard to come by - and red ones, even more so. So despite the hefty petstore price tag, we bought her about five minutes before closing time after a long bus ride to the petstore... and completely fell in love with her.
She was obviously a wild caught Solomon Island Ground Boa, with a few (healed) scars to prove it. However, she was obviously in good condition, having been kept and fed at the petstore for many months prior to our purchasing her. She was also very placid, and it was difficult to leave her alone and resist the urge to handle her while she settled in.
Unfortunately, she was a bit of a stubborn eater. I am of the mentality that if a snake is kept in otherwise good conditions, there is no reason to worry about it not eating. Snakes don't starve themselves to death - if they don't eat and die, there is a more serious problem. A few months passed, though, and we did try numerous methods to get her to eat, including live. She finally did eat a plain f/t mouse that was left in her cage overnight, and she has been a ferocious eater ever since.
A few months after we got her, I saw a male Candoia in the classifieds. This one was grey, with a nice dark dorsal stripe bordered in red. And a few months after that, someone approached me with a trio of red Candoia c paulsoni for sale, of which I kept the male and one female. In Spring 2009, I acquired two more; a sandy coloured female and a light beige female with dark dorsal stripe.
Despite their somewhat finicky eating habits, we really think that established Candoia carinata paulsoni could and should be considered great snakes for beginners, hobbiests and professionals alike. Once they are eating f/t rodents, they make great pets - they are modest in size, tame, and clearly have a huge potential for beautiful colours.
So, while I haven't quite dedicated my life to the propagation of Candoia, we did start this site up to hopefully encourage and assist anyone else out there who appreciates them as much as we do.
If you have any comments, questions, suggestions, pictures, stories - or anything, really - related to Solomon Island Ground Boas, please send us an e-mail, as we'd love to hear from you.
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